Presently, organic molecules are broken down, or digested, using expensive enzymes, microbes or by using a water slurry of the organic molecules and driving it above 375 degrees C. under high pressure to spontaneously break down the molecules. This process is called “supercritical fluid” method where the temperature and pressure are above that where a distinct liquid and gas phases do not exist. Both methods work well, but are expensive to achieve. The first has a high cost of enzymes or microbes and the second a high-energy cost to heat the water slurry.
A well-known example of the use of enzymes is the making of ethanol from cellulose feed stock. The yeast needs C5 and C6 sugars to ferment into ethanol, but cellulose is composed of huge molecules including cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin with from many hundreds to many thousands of carbon atoms in each molecule. At present, the efficiency of the process is low, limiting the use of this alternative energy source.